So here it is the end of 2016 and us with our Brutus Awards. This has been a year with major changes for both Carol and I (we retired from many years as public school educators) and a year where we saw many people being taken from us earlier than anyone expected, needless wars and bloodshed,... Read More »
Although I've been wanting to make it to one of the CAS (Colorado Audio Society) meetings forever, they are usually held in the Denver area. This makes it bit difficult for me, living about an hour and a half away. When I discovered the CAS meeting for November was being held in Colorado Springs, I... Read More »
When this journey/adventure/ordeal started in June, I never imagined in a million years that we'd still be here in the Dungeon in mid-December. To this point, it's been this roller coaster of highs, lows and emotions, fueled by nearly non-stop demands being made by virtually everyone involved in the process of building our new home.... Read More »
OPPO Releases UDP-203 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Player Award-winning universal players reach a new level of clarity OPPO Digital today announced that the new UDP-203 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc player is ready for release. A successor to the award-winning BDP-103 series universal Blu-ray Disc player, the UDP-203 is the latest product released by... Read More »
Gather around, audiosports fans! It's that time of year again…Positive Feedback's Brutus Awards season. Here is 'Part The Second' of Robinson's Brutus Awards 2016. Part The First can be found HERE and Part The Third HERE. Electronics, Part 1 Gryphon Audio Kalliope Quad and Qcto (256fs and 512fs) DSD DAC The Gryphon Audio Kalliope DSD DAC upon arrival…... Read More »
Finally, the third and last of John Marks' Christmas recommendations for us. Delmoni... a String Quartet Christmas...a real treasure to us all. Thanks to friend John! And Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! Dr. David W. Robinson, Ye Olde Editor A String Quartet Christmas Arturo Delmoni & Friends Steinway & Sons Recordings... Read More »
Herein, John Marks Christmas Music 2: "Carols of the Nativity". Thanks to John for these musical gifts during this holiday season! Dr. David W. Robinson, Ye Olde Editor Christmas Night – Carols of the Nativity The Cambridge Singers and the City of London Sinfonia, conducted by John Rutter. Collegium CD 106 or download (Recorded January 1987 by the... Read More »
'Tis the season! John Marks leads us into Christmas time with a trio of short essays on three different artists and albums, together with samples from each. This is Christmas Music Part 1: Nat King Cole, "Christmas Favorites". As always, friend John does a delightful job of leading us into the music, instead of just... Read More »
Gather around, audiosports fans! It's that time of year again…Positive Feedback's Brutus Awards season. You can find Part The Second HERE and Part The Third HERE. At the end of each year, my unindicted co-conspirator Dave Clark and I give our Positive Feedback awards. These are our annual "best stuff we heard this year" plaudits. No padding, crap, junk food, or... Read More »
Time with fellow music lovers, intimate demonstrations of cutting-edge technology, all brought together by a gracious host is a humbling reminder of why brick-and-mortar stores are critical for music lovers everywhere. The Venue (December 3, 2016) Fidelis Home Audio in Nashua, New Hampshire is a safe-haven for music lovers and audiophiles alike. Walter Swanbon heads... Read More »
Ustvolskaya, Silvestrov, and Kancheli. Works for Piano and Orchestra. Elisaveta Blumina, piano. Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Thomas Sanderling. Grand Piano Records GP 678. To many music lovers, the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries belong to the composers of Eastern Europe and Russia. Notable among this group are Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2000), Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937), and... Read More »
The Ghost Town, or Corriganville, Old Tucson and Bodie [Once again, my longtime compadre of creativity, Dan Zimmerman combines text and his superb drawings to reflect upon life, death, memory, and art. Let those who have eyes and those who have ears, see and hear… All drawings by Dan Zimmerman. Dr. David W. Robinson, Ye... Read More »
"It's so easy to fall in love." Buddy Holly and Norman Petty might have just as easily been writing about reel-to-reel tape as finding one's soulmate (although tapes are not for fools!). Everything from the machines' "retro" look to the "coolness" factor to the feel of spooling up the tape to the look of the... Read More »
GHOSTWIRE: The Return of Silverheart In 2014 Chris Sommovigo had a little side project called A.H.A or “After Hours Audio” where he made a few cables designs in extremely limited quantities and sold them to a small ‘membership’ for quite low prices. Power cords, loudspeaker cables, interconnects were among the bounty. Of these limited-edition products... Read More »
So for the past few months I have had the pleasure of using Ron Sutherland's DUO phono stage as the means of taking this from my Transrotor Leonardo 25/25/60 Doppio turntable, audiomods' Series 5 arm, and the Shelter 901 cartridge, and turning it into that for analog playback. Our current 'reference' phono stages are either the... Read More »
Nessun Dorma: The Puccini Album It's happened again. I'd read several years' worth of pro-and-con about Ian Bostridge before hearing the fellow, on a recital disc that I reviewed for this site a few years back. Now, after hearing numerous encomia for tenor Jonas Kaufmann, I've finally heard him sing. Given the novel repertoire for... Read More »
New GoldenEar Technology Dual-Plane Inertially-Balanced SuperSub™ X Subwoofer is Now Shipping GoldenEar’s new SuperSub™ line up is a very special group of ultra-high-performance compact subwoofers that incorporate many recently developed unique and advanced technologies and components. The goal was to create beautifully styled, finely finished, reasonably sized subwoofers, that could generate very low frequency... Read More »
Cary Audio would like to introduce the first product of the new Lifestyle Series, the AiOS (All-in-One-System). AiOS is a new kind of music system for a new generation. What does that mean? Simply put, music lovers and audiophiles alike have many more choices today when it comes to how they listen to music. As... Read More »
Who can gainsay Bach? Like Mozart or Beethoven, he is a towering figure. I don't know exactly how many recordings that I have of The Art of the Fugue over the decades now, but I do know that I have a lot of them, but not this one by The Emerson Quartet! And so, one more?... Read More »
Brooklyn-Based Pianist Erik Deutsch Digitally Releases Debut Solo ALBUM & VIDEO Available DSD Pure/Hi-Res PCM Creatures (Immersive Records, Release Date: November 18, 2016) "Erik Deutsch, a pianist with a taste for tuneful provocation, is an especially valuable resource as a solo commentator and accompanist…" -New York Times "A talented member of the new generation... Read More »
So I have already touched on the AC cords from Triode Wire Labs in my review of the PS Audio BHK preamplifier and DirectStream DAC (as did Steve Kozle way back in Issue 61 HERE in his review of the TWL cords), and yeah, these are the real deal. What they do is pretty much take... Read More »
Beginning at the end of 2003, PF established its first annual awards for fine audio. The Brutus Award was established for the best that David Robinson and Dave Clark had heard in their own listening rooms during that year. You can think of it as our equivalent of an "Editors' Choice" award. The Gizmo Award,... Read More »
Spotify Now Available on OPPO Sonica Wi-Fi Speakers Spotify Premium subscribers can listen to any song in the Spotify catalog on Sonica OPPO Digital today announced that Spotify Premium subscribers can now listen to their music on Sonica Wi-Fi speakers. Sonica is an elegant and powerful Wi-Fi speaker designed with state of the art technology... Read More »
After the madness (and I mean, literally BTW) ensued following my separation, I found myself driving back to Los Angeles. I didn't have a plan, no place to sleep arranged yet, nothin'. So, naturally, this was a bit of a nightmare for my OCD brain,
Miles Davis - Nefertiti, Miles in the Sky, and Filles de Kilimanjaro How time flies! Twenty five years almost to the day after Miles Davis passed away and close on the heels of Mobile Fidelity's 40th anniversary, the confluence of one of the most influential and iconic jazz figures with the world's preeminent record reissue label obviously brings... Read More »
exaSound Audio Design, manufacturer of innovative, exceptional fidelity audio products, announces the new flagship e32 and the new 8-channel e38 digital–to–analog converters. The exaSound e32 stereo Quad DSD DAC exaSound’s new e32 stereo flagship DAC and the e38 multichannel DAC are built on the success of its predecessors, the award winning e22 and e28. Only... Read More »
CIKADA & Oslo Sinfonietta: Maja S. K. Ratkje's And sing… (2L Recordings 2L-124-SABD, available in various formats at https://shop.klicktrack.com/2l/475351) Are you musically adventurous? That question might seem dated in a spacy, Jimi Hendrix' first album sort of way, but it's an honest question for most music lovers. We all have strange and unique recordings in... Read More »
Johnny Hartman - Once In Every Life Reissued by Analogue Productions APJ 105 originally released in 1981 by Bee Hive Records BH 7012 A very difficult record to review! So much to say and so little room to say it. In 1995 Clint Eastwood directed and starred in The Bridges Of Madison County. In September... Read More »
If you find yourself in the Big Apple, you are likely to encounter street musicians. Of course, their quality varies: some are quite good, others not quite ready, while some shouldn't be out in public. I guess it's like that for most of our endeavors. Welcome to the New York Audio Show 2016, held at... Read More »
Ever been burned by an audio purchase? Yep, me too. Although a lifetime of short-term gratification ensures that I'll never have to worry about blowing big money on audio, I have learned on thing: While flash-in-the-pan audio baubles hog all the press, the wise money goes to companies that deliver high quality over time. For... Read More »
Audio Research Rounds out the Foundation Series with the New VT 80 Power Amplifier Audio Research is pleased to introduce the VT80 vacuum-tube power amplifier to its Foundation Series. From the same design and engineering team responsible for the award-winning Reference Series, the Foundation family of vacuum tube components has been created to provide an... Read More »
Mytek Introduces Manhattan II DAC, With Enhanced Circuitry, Parts & Performance Mytek's Extensive Pro proficiency results in their second DAC with MQA Decoding. Also designing the Pro industry's first MQA-capable ADC. Mytek Digital, the second MQA® license after Meridian to ship an Audiophile DAC with MQA technology, will be introducing their MQA-capable Manhattan II DAC.... Read More »
TAVES has been growing exponentially over the past couple of years. In fact last year, it had a growth spurt that would send any teenagers with NBA stars in his eyes, into rapture. In 2014 the show attracted around 5200 people. Last year that jumped to 6500 and this year the growth continued with the... Read More »
I've been on the road for nearly three weeks now, and that's meant an interruption to the republication of John Marks' fine contributions to the musical and audio arts. Apologies all around. In this article from The Tannhauser Gate (http://www.thetannhausergate.com), John shares an elegant and polished jazz album from the '70s, Michael Franks' Sleeping Gypsy. He's right... Read More »
No. Not the streaming media service. Turns out, there's a major high-end audio company in Germany, TIDAL Audio, which is joining the ranks of world-class audio design. In fact, TIDAL Audio, founded in 1999 by Jorn Janczk with the stated intent of building the finest audio systems on the planet, has been around years longer... Read More »
Perhaps the Astell & Kern AK70 is better suited for young people who know what the acronym ftw means. It's small, affordable, and holds a lot of music. It has all kinds of features that make it easy to use. But, the AK70 is just right for me, and I'm old. Oh, and don't worry,... Read More »
Offering a unique combination of unsurpassed comfort, state-of-the-art design, and naturally beautiful sound, AudioQuest's first headphone, NightHawk, has been lovingly featured in the pages of magazines and websites as far-reaching as Stereophile, Rolling Stone, CNET, Wired, Head-Fi, Digital Trends, The Verge, HomeTheaterReview, Sound & Vision, and many more. This is evidence of the intensifying convergence... Read More »
